Orchestrator for orchestrating operations between a computing environment hosting virtual machines and a storage environment

ABSTRACT

Techniques are provided for orchestrating operations between a storage environment and a computing environment hosting virtual machines. A virtual machine proxy, associated with a computing environment hosting a virtual machine, is accessed by an orchestrator to identify the virtual machine and properties of the virtual machine. A storage proxy, associated with a storage environment comprising a volume within which snapshots of the virtual machine are to be stored, is accessed by the orchestrator to initialize a backup procedure. The orchestrator utilizes the virtual machine proxy to create a snapshot of the virtual machine. The orchestrator utilizes the storage proxy to back up the snapshot to the volume using the backup procedure.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/867,504, titled “BACKUP AND RESTORE BETWEEN ACOMPUTING ENVIRONMENT AND A STORAGE ENVIRONMENT” and filed on Jun. 27,2019, which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

A computing environment may be configured to host virtual machines thatare made accessible to client devices. The computing environment maycomprise a virtual machine management platform, a hypervisor (e.g., anElastic Sky X (ESX) server), and/or other hardware and software used tohost and manage the virtual machines. The hypervisor utilizes softwareto abstract processor, memory, storage, and networking resources for useby one or more virtual machines. Each virtual machine runs its ownoperating system (a guest operating system) and applications. Thehypervisor creates logical pools of system resources from the samephysical resources. The logical pools of system resources are eachassigned to individual virtual machines to enable multiple virtualmachines to separately share the same physical resources. A virtualmachine may execute a guest operating system that stores user data,application data, and operating system data within virtual disks.

Unfortunately, the computing environment, such as the virtual machinemanagement platform, may not provide adequate data protection andstorage functionality required by clients. For example, the computingenvironment may not provide adequate levels of deduplication,compression, encryption, back and restore functionality, incrementalbackup and restore functionality, and/or other levels of storagefunctionality required by the clients. Thus, the virtual machinemanagement platform may not provide adequate data protection and storageefficiency for backing up and restoring data of the virtual machines ina scalable manner.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing environmentin which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a network environment withexemplary node computing devices.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary node computingdevice.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for orchestratingoperations between a storage environment and a computing environmenthosting virtual machines.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating an example system fororchestrating operations between a storage environment and a computingenvironment hosting virtual machines, where a backup operation isorchestrated.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating an example system fororchestrating operations between a storage environment and a computingenvironment hosting virtual machines, where a restore operation isorchestrated.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example system fororchestrating operations between a storage environment and a computingenvironment hosting virtual machines.

FIG. 7 is an example of a computer readable medium in which anembodiment of the invention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some examples of the claimed subject matter are now described withreference to the drawings, where like reference numerals are generallyused to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description,for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide an understanding of the claimed subject matter. It maybe evident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practicedwithout these specific details. Nothing in this detailed description isadmitted as prior art.

A computing environment provides virtualization layer services andvirtual machine hosting functionality to host virtual machines that canbe accessed by client devices for storing data, executing applications,hosting services, etc. For example, the computing environment maycomprise a hypervisor, such as an Elastic Sky X (ESX) server, configuredto host virtual machines. The computing environment may comprise avirtual machine management platform that provides a variety of servicesfor managing virtual machines, such as the creation of snapshots ofvirtual machines.

A virtual machine may execute a guest operating system that can beaccessed by a client device. The client device can use the guestoperating system to execute the applications, create and store the datawithin virtual disks used by the virtual machine to store data, etc. Thecomputing environment may provide basic storage and managementfunctionality for the virtual machines, such as by maintaining virtualdisks within which virtual machines can store data, along with theability to generate snapshot backups of the virtual machines by creatingsnapshots of the virtual disks. However, the computing environment suchas the virtual machine management platform may lack adequate dataprotection and storage functionality for providing a level of dataprotection required by clients and storage efficiency for backing up andrestoring data of the virtual machines in a scalable manner.

In contrast, a storage environment may provide robust data protectionand storage functionality, such as long term scalable storage, backupfunctionality, restore functionality, incremental backup and restorefunctionality, deduplication, encryption, compression, data migrationbetween various types of storage such as on-premise storage and cloudstorage, snapshot creation, snapshot storage, and snapshot management,etc. Unfortunately, the computing environment and the storageenvironment are unable to natively communicate and coordinate with oneanother in order to perform various operations, such as backup andrestore operations, snapshot creation operations, etc. This is becausethe storage environment may implement application programming interfaces(APIs), communication protocols, data storage formats, commands andoperations, and/or other services and functionality that are notcompatible with APIs, communication protocols, data storage formats,commands and operations, and/or other services and functionalityimplemented by the computing environment. Thus, the robust storagefunctionality of the storage environment cannot be natively leveraged toprovide data protection and storage efficiency for the virtual machineshosted within the computing environment because the computingenvironment and the storage environment are not natively compatible withone another.

Accordingly, as provided herein, an orchestrator is implemented tocoordinate operations between the computing environment and the storageenvironment. In an embodiment, the orchestrator is implemented ashardware, software, a virtual machine, a service, an application, orcombination thereof. The orchestrator may be implemented at thecomputing environment, at the storage environment, a separateenvironment different than the computing environment and the storageenvironment, or across multiple computing environments. In anembodiment, the orchestrator may be implemented within a cloud computingenvironment. In an embodiment, the orchestrator may be implemented as avirtual machine or as a standalone computing device.

The orchestrator is configured to interact with a first proxy, such as avirtual machine proxy, associated with the computing environment withinwhich virtual machines are hosted. The orchestrator can utilize thevirtual machine proxy to discover virtual machines hosted by thecomputing environment, identify objects, metadata, and virtual disksassociated with the virtual machines, invoke the virtual machinemanagement platform to create snapshots of virtual machines and performother functionality and services provided by the virtual machinemanagement platform, etc. The virtual machine proxy is configured to becompatible with the APIs, communication protocols, data storage formats,commands and operations, and/or other services and functionalityimplemented by the computing environment, such as services andfunctionality provided by the hypervisor and the virtual machinemanagement platform of the computing environment. Thus, the virtualmachine proxy can reformat, modify (e.g., replace, remove, and/or addcertain commands, operations, variables, text, parameters, functions, orother portions of a command), or replace commands (e.g., commandsexpected from the orchestrator may be mapped to corresponding commandsunderstood by the hypervisor and the virtual machine managementplatform, and thus a command from the orchestrator may be replaced witha corresponding command mapped to the command) from the orchestratorinto commands understood by and compatible with the computingenvironment.

The orchestrator is configured to interact with a second proxy, such asa storage proxy, associated with the storage environment that isconfigured to provide robust data protection and storage functionality.The orchestrator can utilize the storage proxy to invoke the storageenvironment to execute various storage and data protection services andfunctionality, such as to perform a backup, perform a restore, performan incremental backup and/or restore, identify volumes, data objects,and other resources of the storage environment, schedule backups, createsecondary snapshots, define storage polices, etc. The storage proxy isconfigured to be compatible with the APIs, communication protocols, datastorage formats, commands and operations, and/or other services andfunctionality implemented by the storage environment, such as servicesand functionality provided by snapshot management functionality, datamigration functionality, and data backup and restore functionality ofthe storage environment. Thus, the storage proxy can reformat, modify(e.g., replace, remove, and/or add certain commands, operations,variables, text, parameters, functions, or other portions of a command),or replace commands (e.g., commands expected from the orchestrator maybe mapped to corresponding commands understood by the services andfunctionality of the storage environment, and thus a command from theorchestrator may be replaced with a corresponding command mapped to thecommand) from the orchestrator into commands understood by andcompatible with the storage environment.

In this way, the orchestrator can coordinate backup, restore, and otheroperations between the computing environment and the storage environmentusing the virtual machine proxy to invoke operations at the computingenvironment such as the creation of a snapshot of a virtual machine andusing the storage proxy to invoke operations at the storage environmentsuch as storing the snapshot within a volume as a backup for subsequentrestoration of the virtual machine. Without the orchestrator, thevirtual machine proxy, and the storage proxy, incompatibilities betweenthe computing environment and the storage environment (e.g.,incompatible operations, commands, data formats, APIs, etc.) wouldinhibit the ability to coordinate operations amongst the computingenvironment and the storage environment.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example operating environment 100 inwhich an embodiment of the techniques described herein may beimplemented. In one example, the techniques described herein may beimplemented within a client device 128, such as a laptop, a tablet, apersonal computer, a mobile device, a server, a virtual machine, awearable device, etc. In another example, the techniques describedherein may be implemented within one or more nodes, such as a first node130 and/or a second node 132 within a first cluster 134, a third node136 within a second cluster 138, etc. A node may comprise a storagecontroller, a server, an on-premise device, a virtual machine such as astorage virtual machine, hardware, software, or combination thereof. Theone or more nodes may be configured to manage the storage and access todata on behalf of the client device 128 and/or other client devices. Inanother example, the techniques described herein may be implementedwithin a distributed computing platform 102 such as a cloud computingenvironment (e.g., a cloud storage environment, a multi-tenant platform,a hyperscale infrastructure comprising scalable server architectures andvirtual networking, etc.) configured to manage the storage and access todata on behalf of client devices and/or nodes.

In yet another example, at least some of the techniques described hereinare implemented across one or more of the client device 128, the one ormore nodes 130, 132, and/or 136, and/or the distributed computingplatform 102. For example, the client device 128 may transmitoperations, such as data operations to read data and write data andmetadata operations (e.g., a create file operation, a rename directoryoperation, a resize operation, a set attribute operation, etc.), over anetwork 126 to the first node 130 for implementation by the first node130 upon storage. The first node 130 may store data associated with theoperations within volumes or other data objects/structures hosted withinlocally attached storage, remote storage hosted by other computingdevices accessible over the network 126, storage provided by thedistributed computing platform 102, etc. The first node 130 mayreplicate the data and/or the operations to other computing devices,such as to the second node 132, the third node 136, a storage virtualmachine executing within the distributed computing platform 102, etc.,so that one or more replicas of the data are maintained. For example,the third node 136 may host a destination storage volume that ismaintained as a replica of a source storage volume of the first node130. Such replicas can be used for disaster recovery and failover.

In an embodiment, the techniques described herein are implemented by astorage operating system or are implemented by a separate module thatinteracts with the storage operating system. The storage operatingsystem may be hosted by the client device, 128, a node, the distributedcomputing platform 102, or across a combination thereof. In an example,the storage operating system may execute within a storage virtualmachine, a hyperscaler, or other computing environment. The storageoperating system may implement a storage file system to logicallyorganize data within storage devices as one or more storage objects andprovide a logical/virtual representation of how the storage objects areorganized on the storage devices. A storage object may comprise anylogically definable storage element stored by the storage operatingsystem (e.g., a volume stored by the first node 130, a cloud objectstored by the distributed computing platform 102, etc.). Each storageobject may be associated with a unique identifier that uniquelyidentifies the storage object. For example, a volume may be associatedwith a volume identifier uniquely identifying that volume from othervolumes. The storage operating system also manages client access to thestorage objects.

The storage operating system may implement a file system for logicallyorganizing data. For example, the storage operating system may implementa write anywhere file layout for a volume where modified data for a filemay be written to any available location as opposed to a write-in-placearchitecture where modified data is written to the original location,thereby overwriting the previous data. In an example, the file systemmay be implemented through a file system layer that stores data of thestorage objects in an on-disk format representation that is block-based(e.g., data is stored within 4 kilobyte blocks and inodes are used toidentify files and file attributes such as creation time, accesspermissions, size and block location, etc.).

In an example, deduplication may be implemented by a deduplicationmodule associated with the storage operating system. Deduplication isperformed to improve storage efficiency. One type of deduplication isinline deduplication that ensures blocks are deduplicated before beingwritten to a storage device. Inline deduplication uses a data structure,such as an incore hash store, which maps fingerprints of data to datablocks of the storage device storing the data. Whenever data is to bewritten to the storage device, a fingerprint of that data is calculatedand the data structure is looked up using the fingerprint to findduplicates (e.g., potentially duplicate data already stored within thestorage device). If duplicate data is found, then the duplicate data isloaded from the storage device and a byte by byte comparison may beperformed to ensure that the duplicate data is an actual duplicate ofthe data to be written to the storage device. If the data to be writtenis a duplicate of the loaded duplicate data, then the data to be writtento disk is not redundantly stored to the storage device. Instead, apointer or other reference is stored in the storage device in place ofthe data to be written to the storage device. The pointer points to theduplicate data already stored in the storage device. A reference countfor the data may be incremented to indicate that the pointer nowreferences the data. If at some point the pointer no longer referencesthe data (e.g., the deduplicated data is deleted and thus no longerreferences the data in the storage device), then the reference count isdecremented. In this way, inline deduplication is able to deduplicatedata before the data is written to disk. This improves the storageefficiency of the storage device.

Background deduplication is another type of deduplication thatdeduplicates data already written to a storage device. Various types ofbackground deduplication may be implemented. In an example of backgrounddeduplication, data blocks that are duplicated between files arerearranged within storage units such that one copy of the data occupiesphysical storage. References to the single copy can be inserted into afile system structure such that all files or containers that contain thedata refer to the same instance of the data. Deduplication can beperformed on a data storage device block basis. In an example, datablocks on a storage device can be identified using a physical volumeblock number. The physical volume block number uniquely identifies aparticular block on the storage device. Additionally, blocks within afile can be identified by a file block number. The file block number isa logical block number that indicates the logical position of a blockwithin a file relative to other blocks in the file. For example, fileblock number 0 represents the first block of a file, file block number 1represents the second block, etc. File block numbers can be mapped to aphysical volume block number that is the actual data block on thestorage device. During deduplication operations, blocks in a file thatcontain the same data are deduplicated by mapping the file block numberfor the block to the same physical volume block number, and maintaininga reference count of the number of file block numbers that map to thephysical volume block number. For example, assume that file block number0 and file block number 5 of a file contain the same data, while fileblock numbers 1-4 contain unique data. File block numbers 1-4 are mappedto different physical volume block numbers. File block number 0 and fileblock number 5 may be mapped to the same physical volume block number,thereby reducing storage requirements for the file. Similarly, blocks indifferent files that contain the same data can be mapped to the samephysical volume block number. For example, if file block number 0 offile A contains the same data as file block number 3 of file B, fileblock number 0 of file A may be mapped to the same physical volume blocknumber as file block number 3 of file B.

In another example of background deduplication, a changelog is utilizedto track blocks that are written to the storage device. Backgrounddeduplication also maintains a fingerprint database (e.g., a flatmetafile) that tracks all unique block data such as by tracking afingerprint and other filesystem metadata associated with block data.Background deduplication can be periodically executed or triggered basedupon an event such as when the changelog fills beyond a threshold. Aspart of background deduplication, data in both the changelog and thefingerprint database is sorted based upon fingerprints. This ensuresthat all duplicates are sorted next to each other. The duplicates aremoved to a dup file. The unique changelog entries are moved to thefingerprint database, which will serve as duplicate data for a nextdeduplication operation. In order to optimize certain filesystemoperations needed to deduplicate a block, duplicate records in the dupfile are sorted in certain filesystem sematic order (e.g., inode numberand block number). Next, the duplicate data is loaded from the storagedevice and a whole block byte by byte comparison is performed to makesure duplicate data is an actual duplicate of the data to be written tothe storage device. After, the block in the changelog is modified topoint directly to the duplicate data as opposed to redundantly storingdata of the block.

In an example, deduplication operations performed by a datadeduplication layer of a node can be leveraged for use on another nodeduring data replication operations. For example, the first node 130 mayperform deduplication operations to provide for storage efficiency withrespect to data stored on a storage volume. The benefit of thededuplication operations performed on first node 130 can be provided tothe second node 132 with respect to the data on first node 130 that isreplicated to the second node 132. In some aspects, a data transferprotocol, referred to as the LRSE (Logical Replication for StorageEfficiency) protocol, can be used as part of replicating consistencygroup differences from the first node 130 to the second node 132. In theLRSE protocol, the second node 132 maintains a history buffer that keepstrack of data blocks that it has previously received. The history buffertracks the physical volume block numbers and file block numbersassociated with the data blocks that have been transferred from firstnode 130 to the second node 132. A request can be made of the first node130 to not transfer blocks that have already been transferred. Thus, thesecond node 132 can receive deduplicated data from the first node 130,and will not need to perform deduplication operations on thededuplicated data replicated from first node 130.

In an example, the first node 130 may preserve deduplication of datathat is transmitted from first node 130 to the distributed computingplatform 102. For example, the first node 130 may create an objectcomprising deduplicated data. The object is transmitted from the firstnode 130 to the distributed computing platform 102 for storage. In thisway, the object within the distributed computing platform 102 maintainsthe data in a deduplicated state. Furthermore, deduplication may bepreserved when deduplicated data is transmitted/replicated/mirroredbetween the client device 128, the first node 130, the distributedcomputing platform 102, and/or other nodes or devices.

In an example, compression may be implemented by a compression moduleassociated with the storage operating system. The compression module mayutilize various types of compression techniques to replace longersequences of data (e.g., frequently occurring and/or redundantsequences) with shorter sequences, such as by using Huffman coding,arithmetic coding, compression dictionaries, etc. For example, anuncompressed portion of a file may comprise “ggggnnnnnnqqqqqqqqqq”,which is compressed to become “4g6n10q”. In this way, the size of thefile can be reduced to improve storage efficiency. Compression may beimplemented for compression groups. A compression group may correspondto a compressed group of blocks. The compression group may berepresented by virtual volume block numbers. The compression group maycomprise contiguous or non-contiguous blocks.

Compression may be preserved when compressed data istransmitted/replicated/mirrored between the client device 128, a node,the distributed computing platform 102, and/or other nodes or devices.For example, an object may be created by the first node 130 to comprisecompressed data. The object is transmitted from the first node 130 tothe distributed computing platform 102 for storage. In this way, theobject within the distributed computing platform 102 maintains the datain a compressed state.

In an example, various types of synchronization may be implemented by asynchronization module associated with the storage operating system. Inan example, synchronous replication may be implemented, such as betweenthe first node 130 and the second node 132. It may be appreciated thatthe synchronization module may implement synchronous replication betweenany devices within the operating environment 100, such as between thefirst node 130 of the first cluster 134 and the third node 136 of thesecond cluster 138 and/or between a node of a cluster and an instance ofa node or virtual machine in the distributed computing platform 102.

As an example, during synchronous replication, the first node 130 mayreceive a write operation from the client device 128. The writeoperation may target a file stored within a volume managed by the firstnode 130. The first node 130 replicates the write operation to create areplicated write operation. The first node 130 locally implements thewrite operation upon the file within the volume. The first node 130 alsotransmits the replicated write operation to a synchronous replicationtarget, such as the second node 132 that maintains a replica volume as areplica of the volume maintained by the first node 130. The second node132 will execute the replicated write operation upon the replica volumeso that the file within the volume and the replica volume comprises thesame data. After, the second node 132 will transmit a success message tothe first node 130. With synchronous replication, the first node 130does not respond with a success message to the client device 128 for thewrite operation until both the write operation is executed upon thevolume and the first node 130 receives the success message that thesecond node 132 executed the replicated write operation upon the replicavolume.

In another example, asynchronous replication may be implemented, such asbetween the first node 130 and the third node 136. It may be appreciatedthat the synchronization module may implement asynchronous replicationbetween any devices within the operating environment 100, such asbetween the first node 130 of the first cluster 134 and the distributedcomputing platform 102. In an example, the first node 130 may establishan asynchronous replication relationship with the third node 136. Thefirst node 130 may capture a baseline snapshot of a first volume as apoint in time representation of the first volume. The first node 130 mayutilize the baseline snapshot to perform a baseline transfer of the datawithin the first volume to the third node 136 in order to create asecond volume within the third node 136 comprising data of the firstvolume as of the point in time at which the baseline snapshot wascreated.

After the baseline transfer, the first node 130 may subsequently createsnapshots of the first volume over time. As part of asynchronousreplication, an incremental transfer is performed between the firstvolume and the second volume. In particular, a snapshot of the firstvolume is created. The snapshot is compared with a prior snapshot thatwas previously used to perform the last asynchronous transfer (e.g., thebaseline transfer or a prior incremental transfer) of data to identify adifference in data of the first volume between the snapshot and theprior snapshot (e.g., changes to the first volume since the lastasynchronous transfer). Accordingly, the difference in data isincrementally transferred from the first volume to the second volume. Inthis way, the second volume will comprise the same data as the firstvolume as of the point in time when the snapshot was created forperforming the incremental transfer. It may be appreciated that othertypes of replication may be implemented, such as semi-sync replication.

In an embodiment, the first node 130 may store data or a portion thereofwithin storage hosted by the distributed computing platform 102 bytransmitting the data within objects to the distributed computingplatform 102. In one example, the first node 130 may locally storefrequently accessed data within locally attached storage. Lessfrequently accessed data may be transmitted to the distributed computingplatform 102 for storage within a data storage tier 108. The datastorage tier 108 may store data within a service data store 120, and maystore client specific data within client data stores assigned to suchclients such as a client (1) data store 122 used to store data of aclient (1) and a client (N) data store 124 used to store data of aclient (N). The data stores may be physical storage devices or may bedefined as logical storage, such as a virtual volume, LUNs, or otherlogical organizations of data that can be defined across one or morephysical storage devices. In another example, the first node 130transmits and stores all client data to the distributed computingplatform 102. In yet another example, the client device 128 transmitsand stores the data directly to the distributed computing platform 102without the use of the first node 130.

The management of storage and access to data can be performed by one ormore storage virtual machines (SVMs) or other storage applications thatprovide software as a service (SaaS) such as storage software services.In one example, an SVM may be hosted within the client device 128,within the first node 130, or within the distributed computing platform102 such as by the application server tier 106. In another example, oneor more SVMs may be hosted across one or more of the client device 128,the first node 130, and the distributed computing platform 102. The oneor more SVMs may host instances of the storage operating system.

In an example, the storage operating system may be implemented for thedistributed computing platform 102. The storage operating system mayallow client devices to access data stored within the distributedcomputing platform 102 using various types of protocols, such as aNetwork File System (NFS) protocol, a Server Message Block (SMB)protocol and Common Internet File System (CIFS), and Internet SmallComputer Systems Interface (iSCSI), and/or other protocols. The storageoperating system may provide various storage services, such as disasterrecovery (e.g., the ability to non-disruptively transition clientdevices from accessing a primary node that has failed to a secondarynode that is taking over for the failed primary node), backup andarchive function, replication such as asynchronous and/or synchronousreplication, deduplication, compression, high availability storage,cloning functionality (e.g., the ability to clone a volume, such as aspace efficient flex clone), snapshot functionality (e.g., the abilityto create snapshots and restore data from snapshots), data tiering(e.g., migrating infrequently accessed data to slower/cheaper storage),encryption, managing storage across various platforms such as betweenon-premise storage systems and multiple cloud systems, etc.

In one example of the distributed computing platform 102, one or moreSVMs may be hosted by the application server tier 106. For example, aserver (1) 116 is configured to host SVMs used to execute applicationssuch as storage applications that manage the storage of data of theclient (1) within the client (1) data store 122. Thus, an SVM executingon the server (1) 116 may receive data and/or operations from the clientdevice 128 and/or the first node 130 over the network 126. The SVMexecutes a storage application and/or an instance of the storageoperating system to process the operations and/or store the data withinthe client (1) data store 122. The SVM may transmit a response back tothe client device 128 and/or the first node 130 over the network 126,such as a success message or an error message. In this way, theapplication server tier 106 may host SVMs, services, and/or otherstorage applications using the server (1) 116, the server (N) 118, etc.

A user interface tier 104 of the distributed computing platform 102 mayprovide the client device 128 and/or the first node 130 with access touser interfaces associated with the storage and access of data and/orother services provided by the distributed computing platform 102. In anexample, a service user interface 110 may be accessible from thedistributed computing platform 102 for accessing services subscribed toby clients and/or nodes, such as data replication services, applicationhosting services, data security services, human resource services,warehouse tracking services, accounting services, etc. For example,client user interfaces may be provided to corresponding clients, such asa client (1) user interface 112, a client (N) user interface 114, etc.The client (1) can access various services and resources subscribed toby the client (1) through the client (1) user interface 112, such asaccess to a web service, a development environment, a human resourceapplication, a warehouse tracking application, and/or other services andresources provided by the application server tier 106, which may usedata stored within the data storage tier 108.

The client device 128 and/or the first node 130 may subscribe to certaintypes and amounts of services and resources provided by the distributedcomputing platform 102. For example, the client device 128 may establisha subscription to have access to three virtual machines, a certainamount of storage, a certain type/amount of data redundancy, a certaintype/amount of data security, certain service level agreements (SLAs)and service level objectives (SLOs), latency guarantees, bandwidthguarantees, access to execute or host certain applications, etc.Similarly, the first node 130 can establish a subscription to haveaccess to certain services and resources of the distributed computingplatform 102.

As shown, a variety of clients, such as the client device 128 and thefirst node 130, incorporating and/or incorporated into a variety ofcomputing devices may communicate with the distributed computingplatform 102 through one or more networks, such as the network 126. Forexample, a client may incorporate and/or be incorporated into a clientapplication (e.g., software) implemented at least in part by one or moreof the computing devices.

Examples of suitable computing devices include personal computers,server computers, desktop computers, nodes, storage servers, nodes,laptop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers or personaldigital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, cell phones, and consumerelectronic devices incorporating one or more computing devicecomponents, such as one or more electronic processors, microprocessors,central processing units (CPU), or controllers. Examples of suitablenetworks include networks utilizing wired and/or wireless communicationtechnologies and networks operating in accordance with any suitablenetworking and/or communication protocol (e.g., the Internet). In usecases involving the delivery of customer support services, the computingdevices noted represent the endpoint of the customer support deliveryprocess, i.e., the consumer's device.

The distributed computing platform 102, such as a multi-tenant businessdata processing platform or cloud computing environment, may includemultiple processing tiers, including the user interface tier 104, theapplication server tier 106, and a data storage tier 108. The userinterface tier 104 may maintain multiple user interfaces, includinggraphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The userinterfaces may include the service user interface 110 for a service toprovide access to applications and data for a client (e.g., a “tenant”)of the service, as well as one or more user interfaces that have beenspecialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements(e.g., as discussed above), which may be accessed via one or more APIs.

The service user interface 110 may include components enabling a tenantto administer the tenant's participation in the functions andcapabilities provided by the distributed computing platform 102, such asaccessing data, causing execution of specific data processingoperations, etc. Each processing tier may be implemented with a set ofcomputers, virtualized computing environments such as a storage virtualmachine or storage virtual server, and/or computer components includingcomputer servers and processors, and may perform various functions,methods, processes, or operations as determined by the execution of asoftware application or set of instructions.

The data storage tier 108 may include one or more data stores, which mayinclude the service data store 120 and one or more client data stores122-124. Each client data store may contain tenant-specific data that isused as part of providing a range of tenant-specific business andstorage services or functions, including but not limited to ERP, CRM,eCommerce, Human Resources management, payroll, storage services, etc.Data stores may be implemented with any suitable data storagetechnology, including structured query language (SQL) based relationaldatabase management systems (RDBMS), file systems hosted by operatingsystems, object storage, etc.

The distributed computing platform 102 may be a multi-tenant and serviceplatform operated by an entity in order to provide multiple tenants witha set of business related applications, data storage, and functionality.These applications and functionality may include ones that a businessuses to manage various aspects of its operations. For example, theapplications and functionality may include providing web-based access tobusiness information systems, thereby allowing a user with a browser andan Internet or intranet connection to view, enter, process, or modifycertain types of business information or any other type of information.

A clustered network environment 200 that may implement one or moreaspects of the techniques described and illustrated herein is shown inFIG. 2. The clustered network environment 200 includes data storageapparatuses 202(1)-202(n) that are coupled over a cluster or clusterfabric 204 that includes one or more communication network(s) andfacilitates communication between the data storage apparatuses202(1)-202(n) (and one or more modules, components, etc. therein, suchas, node computing devices 206(1)-206(n), for example), although anynumber of other elements or components can also be included in theclustered network environment 200 in other examples. This technologyprovides a number of advantages including methods, non-transitorycomputer readable media, and computing devices that implement thetechniques described herein.

In this example, node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can be primary orlocal storage controllers or secondary or remote storage controllersthat provide client devices 208(1)-208(n) with access to data storedwithin data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) and cloud storage device(s)236 (also referred to as cloud storage node(s)). The node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n) may be implemented as hardware, software (e.g., astorage virtual machine), or combination thereof.

The data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) and/or node computing devices206(1)-206(n) of the examples described and illustrated herein are notlimited to any particular geographic areas and can be clustered locallyand/or remotely via a cloud network, or not clustered in other examples.Thus, in one example the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) and/ornode computing device 206(1)-206(n) can be distributed over a pluralityof storage systems located in a plurality of geographic locations (e.g.,located on-premise, located within a cloud computing environment, etc.);while in another example a clustered network can include data storageapparatuses 202(1)-202(n) and/or node computing device 206(1)-206(n)residing in a same geographic location (e.g., in a single on-site rack).

In the illustrated example, one or more of the client devices208(1)-208(n), which may be, for example, personal computers (PCs),computing devices used for storage (e.g., storage servers), or othercomputers or peripheral devices, are coupled to the respective datastorage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) by network connections 212(1)-212(n).Network connections 212(1)-212(n) may include a local area network (LAN)or wide area network (WAN) (i.e., a cloud network), for example, thatutilize TCP/IP and/or one or more Network Attached Storage (NAS)protocols, such as a Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) protocol or aNetwork Filesystem (NFS) protocol to exchange data packets, a StorageArea Network (SAN) protocol, such as Small Computer System Interface(SCSI) or Fiber Channel Protocol (FCP), an object protocol, such assimple storage service (S3), and/or non-volatile memory express (NVMe),for example.

Illustratively, the client devices 208(1)-208(n) may be general-purposecomputers running applications and may interact with the data storageapparatuses 202(1)-202(n) using a client/server model for exchange ofinformation. That is, the client devices 208(1)-208(n) may request datafrom the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) (e.g., data on one ofthe data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) managed by a network storagecontroller configured to process I/O commands issued by the clientdevices 208(1)-208(n)), and the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n)may return results of the request to the client devices 208(1)-208(n)via the network connections 212(1)-212(n).

The node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) of the data storage apparatuses202(1)-202(n) can include network or host nodes that are interconnectedas a cluster to provide data storage and management services, such as toan enterprise having remote locations, cloud storage (e.g., a storageendpoint may be stored within cloud storage device(s) 236), etc., forexample. Such node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can be attached tothe cluster fabric 204 at a connection point, redistribution point, orcommunication endpoint, for example. One or more of the node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n) may be capable of sending, receiving, and/orforwarding information over a network communications channel, and couldcomprise any type of device that meets any or all of these criteria.

In an example, the node computing devices 206(1) and 206(n) may beconfigured according to a disaster recovery configuration whereby asurviving node provides switchover access to the storage devices210(1)-210(n) in the event a disaster occurs at a disaster storage site(e.g., the node computing device 206(1) provides client device 212(n)with switchover data access to data storage devices 210(n) in the eventa disaster occurs at the second storage site). In other examples, thenode computing device 206(n) can be configured according to an archivalconfiguration and/or the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can beconfigured based on another type of replication arrangement (e.g., tofacilitate load sharing). Additionally, while two node computing devicesare illustrated in FIG. 2, any number of node computing devices or datastorage apparatuses can be included in other examples in other types ofconfigurations or arrangements.

As illustrated in the clustered network environment 200, node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n) can include various functional components thatcoordinate to provide a distributed storage architecture. For example,the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can include network modules214(1)-214(n) and disk modules 216(1)-216(n). Network modules214(1)-214(n) can be configured to allow the node computing devices206(1)-206(n) (e.g., network storage controllers) to connect with clientdevices 208(1)-208(n) over the storage network connections212(1)-212(n), for example, allowing the client devices 208(1)-208(n) toaccess data stored in the clustered network environment 200.

Further, the network modules 214(1)-214(n) can provide connections withone or more other components through the cluster fabric 204. Forexample, the network module 214(1) of node computing device 206(1) canaccess the data storage device 210(n) by sending a request via thecluster fabric 204 through the disk module 216(n) of node computingdevice 206(n) when the node computing device 206(n) is available.Alternatively, when the node computing device 206(n) fails, the networkmodule 214(1) of node computing device 206(1) can access the datastorage device 210(n) directly via the cluster fabric 204. The clusterfabric 204 can include one or more local and/or wide area computingnetworks (i.e., cloud networks) embodied as Infiniband, Fibre Channel(FC), or Ethernet networks, for example, although other types ofnetworks supporting other protocols can also be used.

Disk modules 216(1)-216(n) can be configured to connect data storagedevices 210(1)-210(n), such as disks or arrays of disks, SSDs, flashmemory, or some other form of data storage, to the node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n). Often, disk modules 216(1)-216(n) communicatewith the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) according to the SANprotocol, such as SCSI or FCP, for example, although other protocols canalso be used. Thus, as seen from an operating system on node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n), the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) can appearas locally attached. In this manner, different node computing devices206(1)-206(n), etc. may access data blocks, files, or objects throughthe operating system, rather than expressly requesting abstract files.

While the clustered network environment 200 illustrates an equal numberof network modules 214(1)-214(n) and disk modules 216(1)-216(n), otherexamples may include a differing number of these modules. For example,there may be a plurality of network and disk modules interconnected in acluster that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between the networkand disk modules. That is, different node computing devices can have adifferent number of network and disk modules, and the same nodecomputing device can have a different number of network modules thandisk modules.

Further, one or more of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) can benetworked with the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) in the cluster,over the storage connections 212(1)-212(n). As an example, respectiveclient devices 208(1)-208(n) that are networked to a cluster may requestservices (e.g., exchanging of information in the form of data packets)of node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) in the cluster, and the nodecomputing devices 206(1)-206(n) can return results of the requestedservices to the client devices 208(1)-208(n). In one example, the clientdevices 208(1)-208(n) can exchange information with the network modules214(1)-214(n) residing in the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n)(e.g., network hosts) in the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n).

In one example, the storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) host aggregatescorresponding to physical local and remote data storage devices, such aslocal flash or disk storage in the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n),for example. One or more of the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) caninclude mass storage devices, such as disks of a disk array. The disksmay comprise any type of mass storage devices, including but not limitedto magnetic disk drives, flash memory, and any other similar mediaadapted to store information, including, for example, data and/or parityinformation.

The aggregates include volumes 218(1)-218(n) in this example, althoughany number of volumes can be included in the aggregates. The volumes218(1)-218(n) are virtual data stores or storage objects that define anarrangement of storage and one or more filesystems within the clusterednetwork environment 200. Volumes 218(1)-218(n) can span a portion of adisk or other storage device, a collection of disks, or portions ofdisks, for example, and typically define an overall logical arrangementof data storage. In one example volumes 218(1)-218(n) can include storeduser data as one or more files, blocks, or objects that may reside in ahierarchical directory structure within the volumes 218(1)-218(n).

Volumes 218(1)-218(n) are typically configured in formats that may beassociated with particular storage systems, and respective volumeformats typically comprise features that provide functionality to thevolumes 218(1)-218(n), such as providing the ability for volumes218(1)-218(n) to form clusters, among other functionality. Optionally,one or more of the volumes 218(1)-218(n) can be in composite aggregatesand can extend between one or more of the data storage devices210(1)-210(n) and one or more of the cloud storage device(s) 236 toprovide tiered storage, for example, and other arrangements can also beused in other examples.

In one example, to facilitate access to data stored on the disks orother structures of the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n), a filesystemmay be implemented that logically organizes the information as ahierarchical structure of directories and files. In this example,respective files may be implemented as a set of disk blocks of aparticular size that are configured to store information, whereasdirectories may be implemented as specially formatted files in whichinformation about other files and directories are stored.

Data can be stored as files or objects within a physical volume and/or avirtual volume, which can be associated with respective volumeidentifiers. The physical volumes correspond to at least a portion ofphysical storage devices, such as the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n)(e.g., a Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks (RAIDsystem)) whose address, addressable space, location, etc. does notchange. Typically the location of the physical volumes does not changein that the range of addresses used to access it generally remainsconstant.

Virtual volumes, in contrast, can be stored over an aggregate ofdisparate portions of different physical storage devices. Virtualvolumes may be a collection of different available portions of differentphysical storage device locations, such as some available space fromdisks, for example. It will be appreciated that since the virtualvolumes are not “tied” to any one particular storage device, virtualvolumes can be said to include a layer of abstraction or virtualization,which allows it to be resized and/or flexible in some regards.

Further, virtual volumes can include one or more logical unit numbers(LUNs), directories, Qtrees, files, and/or other storage objects, forexample. Among other things, these features, but more particularly theLUNs, allow the disparate memory locations within which data is storedto be identified, for example, and grouped as data storage unit. Assuch, the LUNs may be characterized as constituting a virtual disk ordrive upon which data within the virtual volumes is stored within anaggregate. For example, LUNs are often referred to as virtual drives,such that they emulate a hard drive, while they actually comprise datablocks stored in various parts of a volume.

In one example, the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) can have one ormore physical ports, wherein each physical port can be assigned a targetaddress (e.g., SCSI target address). To represent respective volumes, atarget address on the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) can be used toidentify one or more of the LUNs. Thus, for example, when one of thenode computing devices 206(1)-206(n) connects to a volume, a connectionbetween the one of the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) and one ormore of the LUNs underlying the volume is created.

Respective target addresses can identify multiple of the LUNs, such thata target address can represent multiple volumes. The I/O interface,which can be implemented as circuitry and/or software in a storageadapter or as executable code residing in memory and executed by aprocessor, for example, can connect to volumes by using one or moreaddresses that identify the one or more of the LUNs.

Referring to FIG. 3, node computing device 206(1) in this particularexample includes processor(s) 300, a memory 302, a network adapter 304,a cluster access adapter 306, and a storage adapter 308 interconnectedby a system bus 310. In other examples, the node computing device 206(1)comprises a virtual machine, such as a virtual storage machine. The nodecomputing device 206(1) also includes a storage operating system 312installed in the memory 302 that can, for example, implement a RAID dataloss protection and recovery scheme to optimize reconstruction of dataof a failed disk or drive in an array, along with other functionalitysuch as deduplication, compression, snapshot creation, data mirroring,synchronous replication, asynchronous replication, encryption, etc. Insome examples, the node computing device 206(n) is substantially thesame in structure and/or operation as node computing device 206(1),although the node computing device 206(n) can also include a differentstructure and/or operation in one or more aspects than the nodecomputing device 206(1).

The network adapter 304 in this example includes the mechanical,electrical and signaling circuitry needed to connect the node computingdevice 206(1) to one or more of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) overnetwork connections 212(1)-212(n), which may comprise, among otherthings, a point-to-point connection or a shared medium, such as a localarea network. In some examples, the network adapter 304 furthercommunicates (e.g., using TCP/IP) via the cluster fabric 204 and/oranother network (e.g. a WAN) (not shown) with cloud storage device(s)236 to process storage operations associated with data stored thereon.

The storage adapter 308 cooperates with the storage operating system 312executing on the node computing device 206(1) to access informationrequested by one of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) (e.g., to accessdata on a data storage device 210(1)-210(n) managed by a network storagecontroller). The information may be stored on any type of attached arrayof writeable media such as magnetic disk drives, flash memory, and/orany other similar media adapted to store information.

In the exemplary data storage devices 210(1)-210(n), information can bestored in data blocks on disks. The storage adapter 308 can include I/Ointerface circuitry that couples to the disks over an I/O interconnectarrangement, such as a storage area network (SAN) protocol (e.g., SmallComputer System Interface (SCSI), Internet SCSI (iSCSI), hyperSCSI,Fiber Channel Protocol (FCP)). The information is retrieved by thestorage adapter 308 and, if necessary, processed by the processor(s) 300(or the storage adapter 308 itself) prior to being forwarded over thesystem bus 310 to the network adapter 304 (and/or the cluster accessadapter 306 if sending to another node computing device in the cluster)where the information is formatted into a data packet and returned to arequesting one of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) and/or sent toanother node computing device attached via the cluster fabric 204. Insome examples, a storage driver 314 in the memory 302 interfaces withthe storage adapter to facilitate interactions with the data storagedevices 210(1)-210(n).

The storage operating system 312 can also manage communications for thenode computing device 206(1) among other devices that may be in aclustered network, such as attached to a cluster fabric 204. Thus, thenode computing device 206(1) can respond to client device requests tomanage data on one of the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) or cloudstorage device(s) 236 (e.g., or additional clustered devices) inaccordance with the client device requests.

The file system module 318 of the storage operating system 312 canestablish and manage one or more filesystems including software code anddata structures that implement a persistent hierarchical namespace offiles and directories, for example. As an example, when a new datastorage device (not shown) is added to a clustered network system, thefile system module 318 is informed where, in an existing directory tree,new files associated with the new data storage device are to be stored.This is often referred to as “mounting” a filesystem.

In the example node computing device 206(1), memory 302 can includestorage locations that are addressable by the processor(s) 300 andadapters 304, 306, and 308 for storing related software application codeand data structures. The processor(s) 300 and adapters 304, 306, and 308may, for example, include processing elements and/or logic circuitryconfigured to execute the software code and manipulate the datastructures.

The storage operating system 312, portions of which are typicallyresident in the memory 302 and executed by the processor(s) 300, invokesstorage operations in support of a file service implemented by the nodecomputing device 206(1). Other processing and memory mechanisms,including various computer readable media, may be used for storingand/or executing application instructions pertaining to the techniquesdescribed and illustrated herein. For example, the storage operatingsystem 312 can also utilize one or more control files (not shown) to aidin the provisioning of virtual machines.

In this particular example, the memory 302 also includes a moduleconfigured to implement the techniques described herein, including forexample orchestrating operations between a computing environment hostingvirtual machines and a storage environment as discussed above andfurther below.

The examples of the technology described and illustrated herein may beembodied as one or more non-transitory computer or machine readablemedia, such as the memory 302, having machine or processor-executableinstructions stored thereon for one or more aspects of the presenttechnology, which when executed by processor(s), such as processor(s)300, cause the processor(s) to carry out the steps necessary toimplement the methods of this technology, as described and illustratedwith the examples herein. In some examples, the executable instructionsare configured to perform one or more steps of a method described andillustrated later.

One embodiment of orchestrating operations between a computingenvironment 508 and a storage environment 514 is illustrated by anexemplary method 400 of FIG. 4, which is further described inconjunction with system 500 of FIGS. 5A and 5B. The computingenvironment 508 may comprise virtualization functionality used to hostvirtual machines such as a virtual machine 510 that stores user data,application data, and/or operating system data of a guest operatingsystem within virtual disks 512. For example, the computing environment508 may comprise a hypervisor 513 that hosts virtual machines and avirtual machine management platform 511 that hosts various managementoperations and services for managing virtual machines such as snapshotfunctionality used to generate snapshots of the virtual machines. Thehypervisor 513 may host the virtual machine 510 so that client devicesmay access a guest operating system of the virtual machine 510 forexecuting applications, storing and retrieving data, etc. The virtualmachine management platform 511 (e.g., a virtualization suite ofapplications/services) may provide various services and functionalityfor managing the virtual machines, such as the ability to take snapshotsof virtual machines, perform administrative tasks, allocate and manageresources of virtual machines, etc. The computing environment 508, suchas the virtual machine management platform 511, may natively provide andsupport certain APIs, communication protocols, data storage formats,commands and operations, and/or other services and functionality.

A storage environment 514 may comprise a storage operating system and/orstorage functionality, such as replication functionality, data mirroringfunctionality, data migration functionality, backup functionality,restore functionality, deduplication, compression, storage virtualmachine hosting functionality, a file system that stores data withinvolumes, LUNs, aggregates, objects, cloud storage objects, etc. Thestorage environment 514 may natively support certain APIs, communicationprotocols, data storage formats, commands and operations, and/or otherservices and functionality that are different than the APIs,communication protocols, data storage formats, commands and operations,and/or other services and functionality supported by the computingenvironment 508. Thus, the storage environment 514 is unable to nativelyinteract with the computing environment 508 in order to provide storagefunctionality and storage services for the virtual machines hosted bythe computing environment 508.

Accordingly, as provided herein, an orchestrator is implemented as anagent component 502 (e.g., the orchestrator may be comprised of multipleagents, such as various services, plugins, functionality, distributedcomponents, etc. represented as the agent component 502 in FIGS. 5A and5B for simplicity) configured to act as an intermediary between thecomputing environment 508 and the storage environment 514 so that thestorage environment 514 can provide robust storage services for thevirtual machines of the computing environment 508 (such as virtualmachine 510) notwithstanding incompatibles between the storageenvironment 514 and the computing environment 508.

The agent component 502 is configured to interact with the computingenvironment 508 and the storage environment 514 so that the storagefunctionality of the storage environment 514 can be provided for thecomputing environment 508, such as to back up the virtual machine 510and virtual disks 512 from the computing environment 508 to the storageenvironment 514 and/or to restore the backed up data from the storageenvironment 514 to the computing environment 508 to restore the virtualmachine 510. The agent component 502 interacts with a virtual machineproxy 504 configured to communicate and invoke functionality within thecomputing environment 508 and a storage proxy 520 configured to invokefunctionality of the storage environment 514, such as storagefunctionality and data protection functionality. Even though the virtualmachine proxy 504 is depicted as being hosted within the agent component502, the virtual machine proxy 504 can be implement within anyenvironment or component. Similarly, even though the storage proxy 520is depicted as being hosted within the storage environment 514, thestorage proxy 520 can be implemented within any environment or component(e.g., implemented within the agent component 502). Furthermore, theorchestrator, implemented as the agent component 502, may be hostedwithin and/or across various computing environments, such as astandalone computer, a cloud computing environment (e.g., hosted as avirtual machine), or other environment.

The virtual machine proxy 504 is configured to be compatible with theAPIs, communication protocols, data storage formats, commands andoperations, and/or other services and functionality implemented by thecomputing environment 508, such as services and functionality providedby the hypervisor 513 and the virtual machine management platform 511 ofthe computing environment 508. Thus, the virtual machine proxy 504 canreformat, modify (e.g., replace, remove, and/or add certain commands,operations, variables, text, parameters, functions, or other portions ofa command), or replace commands (e.g., commands expected from the agentcomponent 502 may be mapped to corresponding commands understood by thehypervisor 513 and the virtual machine management platform 511, and thusa command from the agent component 502 may be replaced with acorresponding command mapped to the command) from the agent component502 into commands understood by and compatible with the computingenvironment 508.

The storage proxy 520 is configured to be compatible with the APIs,communication protocols, data storage formats, commands and operations,and/or other services and functionality implemented by the storageenvironment 514, such as services and functionality provided by snapshotmanagement functionality, data migration functionality, and data backupand restore functionality of the storage environment 514. Thus, thestorage proxy 520 can reformat, modify (e.g., replace, remove, and/oradd certain commands, operations, variables, text, parameters,functions, or other portions of a command), or replace commands (e.g.,commands expected from the agent component 502 may be mapped tocorresponding commands understood by the services and functionality ofthe storage environment, 508 and thus a command from the agent component502 may be replaced with a corresponding command mapped to the command)from the agent component 502 into commands understood by and compatiblewith the storage environment 514.

The agent component 502 is configured to transmit commands to thevirtual machine proxy 504. Because these commands may not be nativelysupported by the virtual machine management platform 511 and thehypervisor 513, the virtual machine proxy 504 may reformat, translate,exchange (e.g., replace a command with another command mapped to thecommand and formatted for the computing environment 508) and/or modifythe commands to a format understood by the computing environment 508.The agent component 502 is configured to transmit commands to thestorage proxy 520. In an embodiment, the storage proxy 520 may reformat,translate, exchange (e.g., replace a command with another command mappedto the command and formatted for the storage environment 514) and/ormodify the commands to a format understood by the storage environment514.

At 402, the virtual machine proxy 504 is accessed by the agent component502 to identify the virtual machine 510 hosted by the computingenvironment 508 and/or properties of the virtual machine 510 (e.g.,information and metadata relating to identifiers and locations of thevirtual disks 512 of the virtual machine 510, information identifyingprior snapshots created from the virtual disks 512, identificationinformation of the virtual machine 510, etc.). The virtual machine proxy504 may communicate with the computing environment 508 usingrepresentation state transfer (REST) communication. In an example,credentials for the virtual machine management platform 511 of thecomputing environment 508 hosting the virtual machine 510 aretransmitted by the agent component 502 to the virtual machine proxy 504for accessing the virtual machine 510 through the computing environment508. The credentials may be input into the agent component 502 by anadministrator through a user interface or the agent component 502 may becapable of accessing such credentials from the virtual machinemanagement platform 511 based upon some permission granted to the agentcomponent 502 for accessing such credentials. In another example, thecredentials may be received from the virtual machine proxy 504 by theagent component 502.

At 404, the storage proxy 520 is accessed by the agent component 502 inorder to communicate with the storage functionality of the storageenvironment 514 for performing a backup procedure and/or other storageprocedures such as a restore procedure based upon the properties of thevirtual machine 510. For example, the agent component 502 transmits aninitiate backup request to the storage proxy 520 (e.g., the backuprequest may be generated in response to an indication that the backup isto be performed, such as an indication from a backup service hosted bythe storage environment 514). Because the initiate backup request maynot be formatted to be natively understood by a backup service of thestorage environment 514, the storage proxy 520 may format, modify,and/or replace the initiate backup request with an equivalent commandthat can be understood by the backup service of the storage environment514. In this way, the reformatted command, modified command, orequivalent command may be transmitted from the storage proxy 520 to thestorage service of the storage environment 514. In an example, the agentcomponent 502 and/or the storage proxy 520 communicates with the storageenvironment 514 utilizing representation state transfer (REST)communication.

At 406, the agent component 502 utilizes the virtual machine proxy 504to invoke the computing environment 508 to create a snapshot 516 of thevirtual disks 512 of the virtual machine 510. For example, the agentcomponent 502 transmits a snapshot create request to the virtual machineproxy 504. In an example, the snapshot create request may haveoriginated from the storage environment 514. Because the snapshot createrequest may not be formatted to be natively understood by the virtualmachine management platform 511, the virtual machine proxy 504 mayformat, modify, and/or replace the snapshot create request with anequivalent command that can be understood by the virtual machinemanagement platform 511. In this way, the reformatted command, modifiedcommand, or equivalent command may be transmitted from the virtualmachine proxy 504 to the virtual machine management platform 511. Inresponse to creating a snapshot 516 of the virtual disks 512, thevirtual machine management platform 511 of the computing environmenttransmits the snapshot 516 to the agent component 502. In an example,the virtual machine 510 may be shut down before the snapshot 516 iscaptured.

At 408, the agent component 502 utilizes the storage proxy 520 to backup the snapshot 516 to the volume 518 within the storage environment 514using the backup procedure of the backup service. The storage proxy 520may package the snapshot 516 into a format understood by the backupservice of the storage environment 514 performing the backup procedure.In this way, the backup procedure may be performed to obtain thesnapshot 516 of the virtual disks 512 of the virtual machine 510 andstore data of the snapshot 516 within the volume 518 of the storageenvironment 514. In an example, the backup procedure may be part of abackup job for the virtual machine 510 that is created and monitored bythe agent component 502, such as where the agent component tracks astate of the backup job. An instance of the snapshot 516 at thecomputing environment 508 may be deleted upon the backup procedurecompleting.

In an example, the agent component 502 may generate a catalog 506 thatidentifies files within snapshots, of the virtual machine 510, storedwithin the volume 518 of the storage environment 514. The catalog 506can be searched for one or more files within a snapshot to restore tothe virtual machine 510. In this way, a fine granularity of restore maybe performed for the virtual machine 510.

In an example, the agent component 502 may utilize the virtual machineproxy 504 to invoke the computing environment 508 to perform variousactions. For example, the agent component 502 may transmit a request tothe virtual machine proxy 504 to create a new virtual machine within thecomputing environment 508. The agent component 502 may utilize thestorage proxy 520 to obtain snapshot data, which can be provided to thevirtual machine proxy 504 for creating the new virtual machine. In thisway, the agent component 502 functions as an orchestrator fororchestrating operations between the computing environment 508 and thestorage environment 512 using the virtual machine proxy 504 and thestorage proxy 520, such as creating virtual machines, restoring virtualmachines, backing up virtual machines, deleting virtual machines, etc.

FIG. 5B illustrates the agent component 502 interacting with the storageproxy 520 and the virtual machine proxy 504 to implement a restoreprocedure, such as a restore 532 of data for the virtual machine 510(e.g., a full restore using a single snapshot of the virtual machine 510backed up to the volume 518 or an incremental restore using a datadifference between two snapshots of the virtual machine 510 backed up tothe volume 518). For example, the agent component 502 utilizes thestorage proxy 520 to initiate the restore procedure to perform therestore 532 of the virtual machine 510. As part of the restore, data 530representing a state of the virtual machine 510 to which the virtualmachine 510 is to be restored is identified in the storage environment530. In an embodiment, storage functionality of the storage environment514 may evaluate the snapshot 516 and/or other snapshots stored withinthe volume 518 to identify the data 530 that is then transmitted to theagent component 502 by the storage proxy 520. In embodiment, the agentcomponent 502 may host the storage proxy 520, and thus the data 530 isidentified as being stored within the storage environment 514.

The agent component 502 utilizes the virtual machine proxy 504 totransfer the data 530 to the computing environment 508 to apply to thevirtual disks 512 of the virtual machine 510 as part of restoring 532the virtual machine 510. In this way, the virtual disks 512 are modifiedbased upon the data 530 by so that a state of the virtual machine 510corresponds to a state of the virtual machine 510 captured by thesnapshot 516 or a data difference between the snapshot 516 and adifferent snapshot for an incremental restore. In an example, therestore 532 is performed at a virtual machine granularity. In anotherexample, the restore 532 is performed as a block level restore of datablocks within the virtual disks 512. The restore 532 may be anincremental restore using the data 530 that corresponds to a differencebetween a common snapshot of the virtual machine 510 (a snapshot commonto both the storage environment 514 and the computing environment 508)and another snapshot of the virtual machine 510 (e.g., snapshot 516).

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system 600 for orchestratingoperations between a computing environment, comprising a virtual machinemanagement platform 612 and a hypervisor 610 configured to host andmanage virtual machines, and a storage environment configured to providestorage functionality and services such as the storage of data through aprimary system 604 and/or a secondary system 606. The orchestrator maybe implemented as an agent component comprising various services,functionality, and/or components of the system 600. In an embodiment,the orchestrator may be implemented in association with a dataavailability service 618 (e.g., a cloud-based service that manages dataprotection workflows between the primary system 604 and the secondarysystem 606 such as the migration, backup, and/or restoration of databetween on-premise storage, cloud storage, and/or storage of otherstorage providers).

The orchestrator may be implemented as logic and/or functionality acrossone or more components depicted in FIG. 6. In an embodiment, theorchestrator may be implemented in association with a migration service616 configured to migrate data between various storage locations,device, and/or storage providers. In an embodiment, the orchestrator maybe implemented in association with a snapshot management center 622configured to provide centralized control and oversight for managingapplication specific backup operations, restore operations, clone jobs,snapshot creation and management operations, etc. In an embodiment, theorchestrator may be implemented in association with a snapshot plugin614 used to interact with the virtual machine management platform 612,such as through a virtual machine proxy and the virtual machine controlcomponent 628, for performing various commands such as taking snapshotsof virtual machines hosted by the hypervisor 610 of the computingenvironment. The virtual machine proxy, used to communicate with thehypervisor 610 and the virtual machine management platform 612, may beimplemented by the snapshot plugin 614, the virtual machine controlcomponent 628, the agent 608, or other component or across multiplecomponents.

In an embodiment, the orchestrator may be implemented in associationwith a data broker user interface (e.g., a user interface of the databroker 602) that allows a client device to invoke functionality providedby a data broker 602 for managing data of a client stored across theprimary system 604, the secondary system 606 (e.g., cloud storage),virtual machines, and/or other various storage locations and/orproviders. For example, the client device may display the data brokeruser interface 620 through a display of the client device (e.g.,execution of a storage administration application, a web-based portalaccessible through a website, etc.), which allows a user to view volumeswithin the primary system 604, initiate backups and restores of datawithin the secondary system 606, identify and/or access virtualmachines, schedule backups, initiate an incremental backup and/orrestore, view snapshots of virtual machines, and/or perform a widevariety of functionality related to managing data.

An agent 608 within the data broker 602 may be configured to connect todata storage provided by the hypervisor 610 to the virtual machines,such as to identify and access virtual disks used by the virtualmachines to store data. The agent 608 may connect to the data storagethrough a connection type (7) (e.g., a transport layer security (TLS)(e.g., a TSLv1.2) connection to an ESX host using a Vsphere username andpassword) to the hypervisor 610 utilizing credentials, such as a username and password, used to log into the hypervisor 610. Also, the agent608 may connect to the storage environment, such as to the secondarysystem 606, through a connection type (6) (e.g., utilizing a logicalreplication storage efficiency (LRSE) engine over an un-encryptedsocket). The agent 608 may be configured within a data plane configuredto transfer data, such as snapshot data and/or virtual machine data,between the storage environment and the computing environment (and/orvice versa) in order to facilitate various operations such as backup andrestore. The orchestrator may utilize a storage proxy to interact withthe storage environment. The storage proxy may be hosted by the agent608, by the primary system 604, by the secondary system 606, by the databroker 602, or by other components (e.g., components of theorchestrator) or across multiple components.

A control backend of the data broker 602 may comprise a control plane626 through which the data broker user interface 620, the virtualmachine control component 628, the data availability service 618 using asimple queue service 630, and protection micro-services 624 cancommunicate over various types of connections. In an embodiment, theprotection micro-services 624 are connected to the control plane 626through a connection type (4) (e.g., using representation state transfer(REST) communication and/or credentials, such as a username andpassword). The protection micro-services 624 may comprise variousmicro-services that provide data protection and storage efficiency, suchas backup functionality, restore functionality, incremental backup andrestore functionality, deduplication, snapshot creation and management,data migration, compression, encryption, etc. In an example, theprotection micro-services 624 may utilize a connection type (5) tointeract with the primary system 604 and/or the secondary system 606 inorder to provide data protection and storage services for the primarysystem 604 and/or the secondary system 606. The connection type (5) maycorrespond to ZAPI commands using credentials such as username andpassword maintained by storage operating systems of the primary system604 and/or the secondary system 606. In another example, the protectionmicro-services 624 may work together with the migration service 616 toprovide data migration for data stored by the primary system 604 and/orthe secondary system 606. The protection micro-services 624 maycommunicate with the migration service 616 over the connection type (4)such as using representation state transfer (REST) communication and/orcredentials, such as a username and password.

The data availability service 618 may be connected to the simple queueservice 630 through a connection type (1) such as by using simple queueservice (SQS) over HTTP. The simple queue service 630 may be connectedto the control plane 626 through a connection type (2) usingrepresentation state transfer (REST) communication and/or credentials,such as a username and password. The simple queue service 630 may be amanaged message queuing service that enables the decoupling and scale ofmicro-services, distributed systems, and serverless applications, andprovides the ability to send, store, and receives messages betweensoftware components at any volume without losing messages or requiringother services to be available. The virtual machine control component628 may be connected to the control plane 626 using a connection type(8) such as Thrift over HTTPS on a local system of the data broker 602.The virtual machine control component 628 may also be connected to thecontrol plane 626 using the connection type (2) such as by usingrepresentation state transfer (REST) communication and/or credentials,such as a username and password.

The orchestrator may utilize the snapshot plugin 614 to transmitcommands over a connection type (3) to the virtual machine controlcomponent 628. The virtual machine control component 628 may communicatewith the virtual machine management platform 612 of the computingenvironment, such as to issue commands to the virtual machine managementplatform 612 to create snapshots of virtual machines hosted by thehypervisor 610. The virtual machine control component 628 maycommunicate with the virtual machine management platform 612 over aconnection type (9), such as using APIs, provided by the virtual machinemanagement platform 612 over HTTPS using credentials such as usernameand password maintained by the virtual machine management platform 612.

The snapshot management center 622 may be connected to the virtualmachine control component 628 over the connection type (3). In this way,the snapshot management center 622 can issue snapshot related commandsthrough the virtual machine control component 628 and/or the virtualmachine plugin 614 for execution by the virtual machine managementplatform 612. If commands received by the virtual machine controlcomponent 628 are not formatted to be understood by the virtual machinemanagement platform 612, then those commands may be reformatted,replaced with equivalent commands mapped to those commands, and/orotherwise modified into commands understood by the virtual machinemanagement platform 612.

The orchestrator is implemented in association with and/or comprised ofthe migration service 616, the data availability service 618, the databroker user interface 620, the snapshot management center 622, and/orthe snapshot plugin 614 for the virtual machine control component 628.The orchestrator is configured to perform agent registration to registerwith the agent 608 for access to the storage environment such as toaccess the secondary system 606 and for access to the computingenvironment such as to access the hypervisor 610 and/or the virtualmanagement platform 612 for identifying, accessing, creating, modifying,and/or deleting virtual machines, virtual disks of the virtual machines,snapshots of the virtual machines, metadata describing snapshots, etc.The orchestrator is configured to perform virtual machine discovery toidentify virtual machines hosted by the hypervisor 610, such as throughthe agent 608 over the connection type (7).

The orchestrator is configured to perform virtual machine backup andrestore orchestration from one environment to another environment, suchas from cloud to the secondary system 606. The orchestrator may utilizethe snapshot management center 622, the snapshot plugin 614, themigration service 616, and/or the data availability service 618 toperform the virtual machine backup and restore orchestration.Furthermore, the orchestrator may utilize various components of the databroker 602, such as the control plane 626, the protection micro-services624, the agent 608, the virtual machine control component 628, and/orother components for performing the virtual machine backup and restoreorchestration. The orchestrator is configured to maintain a catalog ofthe virtual machines.

The data broker 602 is configured to discover the virtual machineshosted by the hypervisor 610, such as through the agent 608 over theconnection type (7). The data broker 602 is configured to discovervolumes hosted by the storage environment, such as volumes hosted by theprimary system 604 and/or the secondary system 606, such as through theagent 608. The data broker 602 is configured to implement a granulardata mover to move data (e.g., data of a snapshot, a data differencebetween two snapshots, etc.) between the storage environment such as theprimary system 604 and/or the secondary system 606 and the computingenvironment such as storage within which virtual disks of the virtualmachines are stored. The data broker 602 is configured to implement alocal virtual machine consistent snapshot creation and retention, suchas to retain snapshots within the primary system 604 and/or thesecondary system 606, which may be local to the data broker 602.

The data broker 602 is configured to restore data of one or moresnapshots from the storage environment to a virtual machine hostedwithin the computing environment. In an embodiment, the virtual machineproxy used to interact with the hypervisor 610, the virtual machinemanagement platform 612, storage of the computing environment, virtualmachines hosted by the hypervisor 610, and/or virtual disks of thevirtual machines may be implemented within the agent 608 and/or othercomponents of the data broker 602.

In an embodiment, the storage proxy may be implemented within a storageoperating system associated with the storage environment such as theprimary system 604 and/or the secondary system 606 (e.g., the storageproxy may be implemented within the secondary system 606). The agent 608may communicate with the storage operating system and/or the storageproxy utilizing the connection type (6) such as through a logicalreplication storage efficiency (LRSE) engine over an un-encryptedsocket. The orchestrator may communicate with the data broker 602 and/orthe storage operating system using the storage proxy throughrepresentation state transfer (REST) communication APIs.

The storage operating system such as the secondary system 606 of thestorage environment is configured to discovery resources of the storageenvironment, such as storage resources, volumes, etc. The storageoperating system is configured to schedule snapshot data transfers, suchas through the snapshot management center 622 and/or the protectionmicro-services 624 (e.g., transfer snapshot data between the primarysystem 604, the secondary system 606, and/or storage within thecomputing environment used to store virtual disks of virtual machines).The storage operating system is configured to create snapshots andretain the snapshots, such as by creating and retaining snapshots withinthe secondary system 606. In an example, the storage operating system isconfigured to create and/or retain snapshots within cloud storage. Thestorage operating system is configured to restore a snapshot from thecloud storage to the secondary system 606 and/or the primary storagesystem 604.

In an embodiment, the virtual machine proxy provides a simple queueservice API gateway between the orchestrator and the data broker 602,such as where the simple queue service 630 is provided between thecontrol plane 626 of the data broker 602 and the data availabilityservice 618 of the orchestrator. The control plane 626 providesrepresentation state transfer (REST) communication APIs (as an example)through which interactions to the data broker 602 occur. A proxy (e.g.,a storage proxy and/or the virtual machine proxy) will call therepresentation state transfer (REST) communication APIs of the controlplane 626 using an administrator username and password, and the controlplane 626 will issue a token to the proxy so that the proxy can use thetoken to communicate with the control plane 626. In this way, the proxycan communicate with workflow engines hosted by the control plane 626 toperform back up and restore operations between the storage environmentand the computing environment hosting the virtual machines.

The virtual machine control component 628 hosts representation statetransfer (REST) communication (as an example) APIs used to interact withAPIs of the virtual machine management platform 612 (e.g., vsphere APIsof a suite of server virtualization products and services) forperforming backup, restore, and/or clone operations (e.g., backing up avirtual machine hosted by the hypervisor 610 and managed by the virtualmachine management platform 612). The virtual machine control component628 hosts virtual storage APIs for data protection (VADP) representationstate transfer (REST) communication APIs. These APIs are exposed to thesnapshot plugin 614.

The protection micro-services 624 hosts a job scheduler configured toschedule and monitor jobs, such as backup jobs, restore jobs, datamigration jobs, clone jobs, etc. The protection micro-services 624provide a storage DP control, which is a micro-service that providesrepresentation state transfer (REST) communication API based access tostorage, such as storage of the primary system 604, storage of thesecondary system 606, etc. The storage DP control exposes coarse grainAPIs for backup, restore, and clone workflows to implement at thestorage environment. The protection micro-services 624 provides adatabase access layer that stores backup metadata for workflows of thesnapshot management center 622. The protection micro-services 624provides logging and alert notifications, such as through the databroker user interface 620, email, or other notification interfaces.

The data broker 602 comprises a data mover. The data mover provides adata path to transfer virtual machine disk backup data between thecomputing environment (e.g., virtual machine disk backup data fromsnapshots created by the virtual machine management platform 612 ofvirtual machines hosted by the hypervisor 610) and the storageenvironment such as snapshot backup data stored within volumes theprimary system 604 and/or the secondary system 606. In this way, theorchestrator can orchestrate operations between the computingenvironment and the storage environment by leveraging the data broker602, such as the data mover to move data between the computingenvironment and the storage environment. Thus, storage functionality ofthe storage environment can be provided for virtual machines hosted bythe computing environment.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, anapparatus/machine/system for performing a backup and/or restorecomprises a means for accessing a virtual machine proxy associated witha computing environment hosting a virtual machine to identify thevirtual machine and properties of the virtual machine; a means foraccessing a storage proxy associated with a storage environmentcomprising a volume within which snapshots of the virtual machine are tobe stored to initialize a backup procedure based upon the properties ofthe virtual machine; a means for utilizing the virtual machine proxy tocreate a snapshot of the virtual machine; and a means for utilizing thestorage proxy to back up the snapshot to the volume using the backupprocedure.

Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium 700comprising processor-executable instructions configured to implement oneor more of the techniques presented herein. An example embodiment of acomputer-readable medium or a computer-readable device that is devisedin these ways is illustrated in FIG. 7, wherein the implementationcomprises a computer-readable medium 708, such as a compactdisc-recordable (CD-R), a digital versatile disc-recordable (DVD-R),flash drive, a platter of a hard disk drive, etc., on which is encodedcomputer-readable data 706. This computer-readable data 706, such asbinary data comprising at least one of a zero or a one, in turncomprises processor-executable computer instructions 704 configured tooperate according to one or more of the principles set forth herein. Insome embodiments, the processor-executable computer instructions 704 areconfigured to perform a method 702, such as at least some of theexemplary method 400 of FIG. 4, for example. In some embodiments, theprocessor-executable computer instructions 704 are configured toimplement a system, such as at least some of the exemplary system 500 ofFIGS. 5A-5B and/or at least some of the exemplary system 600 of FIG. 6,for example. Many such computer-readable media are contemplated tooperate in accordance with the techniques presented herein.

In an embodiment, the described methods and/or their equivalents may beimplemented with computer executable instructions. Thus, in anembodiment, a non-transitory computer readable/storage medium isconfigured with stored computer executable instructions of analgorithm/executable application that when executed by a machine(s)cause the machine(s) (and/or associated components) to perform themethod. Example machines include but are not limited to a processor, acomputer, a server operating in a cloud computing system, a serverconfigured in a Software as a Service (SaaS) architecture, a smartphone, and so on. In an embodiment, a computing device is implementedwith one or more executable algorithms that are configured to performany of the disclosed methods.

It will be appreciated that processes, architectures and/or proceduresdescribed herein can be implemented in hardware, firmware and/orsoftware. It will also be appreciated that the provisions set forthherein may apply to any type of special-purpose computer (e.g., filehost, storage server and/or storage serving appliance) and/orgeneral-purpose computer, including a standalone computer or portionthereof, embodied as or including a storage system. Moreover, theteachings herein can be configured to a variety of storage systemarchitectures including, but not limited to, a network-attached storageenvironment and/or a storage area network and disk assembly directlyattached to a client or host computer. Storage system should thereforebe taken broadly to include such arrangements in addition to anysubsystems configured to perform a storage function and associated withother equipment or systems.

In some embodiments, methods described and/or illustrated in thisdisclosure may be realized in whole or in part on computer-readablemedia. Computer readable media can include processor-executableinstructions configured to implement one or more of the methodspresented herein, and may include any mechanism for storing this datathat can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of computerreadable media include (hard) drives (e.g., accessible via networkattached storage (NAS)), Storage Area Networks (SAN), volatile andnon-volatile memory, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-accessmemory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM) and/or flash memory, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM)s,CD-Rs, compact disk re-writeable (CD-RW)s, DVDs, cassettes, magnetictape, magnetic disk storage, optical or non-optical data storage devicesand/or any other medium which can be used to store data.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features or methodological acts, it is to be understood thatthe subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, thespecific features and acts described above are disclosed as exampleforms of implementing at least some of the claims.

Various operations of embodiments are provided herein. The order inwhich some or all of the operations are described should not beconstrued to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. Alternative ordering will be appreciated given the benefit ofthis description. Further, it will be understood that not all operationsare necessarily present in each embodiment provided herein. Also, itwill be understood that not all operations are necessary in someembodiments.

Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is implemented as a method,apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard application orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosedsubject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass a computer application accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, manymodifications may be made to this configuration without departing fromthe scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.

As used in this application, the terms “component”, “module,” “system”,“interface”, and the like are generally intended to refer to acomputer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware andsoftware, software, or software in execution. For example, a componentincludes a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, anexecutable, a thread of execution, an application, or a computer. By wayof illustration, both an application running on a controller and thecontroller can be a component. One or more components residing within aprocess or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer or distributed between two or more computers.

Moreover, “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example,instance, illustration, etc., and not necessarily as advantageous. Asused in this application, “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or”rather than an exclusive “or”. In addition, “a” and “an” as used in thisapplication are generally be construed to mean “one or more” unlessspecified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singularform. Also, at least one of A and B and/or the like generally means A orB and/or both A and B. Furthermore, to the extent that “includes”,“having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used, such terms areintended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising”.

Many modifications may be made to the instant disclosure withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter. Unlessspecified otherwise, “first,” “second,” or the like are not intended toimply a temporal aspect, a spatial aspect, an ordering, etc. Rather,such terms are merely used as identifiers, names, etc. for features,elements, items, etc. For example, a first set of information and asecond set of information generally correspond to set of information Aand set of information B or two different or two identical sets ofinformation or the same set of information.

Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respectto one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modificationswill occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading andunderstanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. Thedisclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and islimited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regardto the various functions performed by the above described components(e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component which performs the specified function of the describedcomponent (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though notstructurally equivalent to the disclosed structure. In addition, while aparticular feature of the disclosure may have been disclosed withrespect to only one of several implementations, such feature may becombined with one or more other features of the other implementations asmay be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: accessing a virtual machineproxy, associated with a computing environment hosting a virtualmachine, to identify the virtual machine and properties of the virtualmachine; accessing a storage proxy, associated with a storageenvironment comprising a volume within which snapshots of the virtualmachine are to be stored, to initialize a backup procedure based uponthe properties of the virtual machine; instructing the virtual machineproxy to create a snapshot of the virtual machine; and instructing thestorage proxy to back up the snapshot to the volume using the backupprocedure.
 2. The method of claim 1, comprising: instructing the storageproxy to initiate a restore procedure to perform a restore of thevirtual machine.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein an orchestrator,hosted within a cloud computing environment, utilizes the storage proxyand the virtual machine proxy to perform back and restore operations. 4.The method of claim 1, comprising: instructing the storage proxy toobtain a data difference, from the storage environment, betweensnapshots.
 5. The method of claim 1, comprising: instructing the virtualmachine proxy to transfer a data difference to the computing environmentto apply the data difference to the virtual machine.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a restore operation modifies a virtual disk of thevirtual machine to a state of the virtual disk when a prior snapshot wascreated.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein a restore operation isperformed at a virtual machine granularity.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein a restore operation is performed as a block level incrementalrestore of data blocks.
 9. The method of claim 1, comprising:transmitting credentials, for a virtual machine management platform ofthe computing device, to the virtual machine proxy for accessing thevirtual machine.
 10. The method of claim 1, comprising: receivingcredentials, for a virtual machine management platform of the computingenvironment, from the virtual machine proxy for accessing the virtualmachine.
 11. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprisinginstructions for performing a method, which when executed by a machine,causes the machine to: access a virtual machine proxy, associated with acomputing environment hosting a virtual machine, to identify the virtualmachine and properties of the virtual machine; access a storage proxy,associated with a storage environment corresponding to cloud storagewithin which snapshots of the virtual machine are to be stored, toinitialize a backup procedure based upon the properties of the virtualmachine; instruct the virtual machine proxy to create a snapshot of thevirtual machine; and instruct the storage proxy to back up the snapshotto cloud storage of the storage environment using the backup procedure.12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein theinstructions cause the machine to: utilize the storage proxy to initiatea restore procedure to perform an restore of the virtual machine. 13.The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein therestore identifies a data difference between the snapshot and a priorsnapshot of the virtual machine, wherein the snapshot and the priorsnapshot are stored within the cloud storage, and wherein the datadifference is applied to the virtual machine.
 14. The non-transitorymachine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause themachine to: transmit a request to the virtual machine proxy to create anew virtual machine within the computing environment.
 15. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein theinstructions cause the machine to: create and monitor a backup job forthe virtual machine.
 16. A computing device comprising: a memorycomprising machine executable code for performing a method; and aprocessor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute themachine executable code to cause the processor to: access a virtualmachine proxy, associated with a computing environment hosting a virtualmachine, to identify the virtual machine and properties of the virtualmachine; access a storage proxy, associated with storage functionalitycorresponding to cloud storage within which snapshots of the virtualmachine are to be stored, to initialize a backup procedure based uponthe properties of the virtual machine; instruct the virtual machineproxy to create a snapshot of the virtual machine; and instruct thestorage proxy to backup the snapshot to the cloud storage using thebackup procedure.
 17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein themachine executable code causes the processor to: search a catalog for atarget file within a snapshot to restore to the virtual machine.
 18. Thecomputing device of claim 16, wherein the machine executable code causesthe processor to: communicate with the computing environment utilizingrepresentation state transfer communication.
 19. The computing device ofclaim 16, wherein the machine executable code causes the processor to:communicate with the storage environment utilizing representation statetransfer communication.
 20. The computing device of claim 16, whereinthe machine executable code causes the processor to: generate a catalogidentifying files within snapshots of the virtual machine stored withinthe volume of the storage environment.